The Silver King 



billowy, nebulous waves over the sand, it was not 

 unbearable. I stretched out on the edge of the key 

 one day, and the boy having tossed out the big mullet 

 bait, sat down to wait. Five strikes came, sharks 

 and three unknown; then there was throwing the 

 cast-net down the key for more mullet, and again 

 the big bait went whizzing out. This time luck of a 

 specious quality followed; the line began to run out, 

 and not knowing whether it was a shark or some- 

 thing else I struck; no doubt about that, as up into 

 the air went a shining gigantic beam of silver, exactly 

 how high I dare not say. I thought ten feet, I 

 believe fifteen, and there it seemed to my astonished 

 eyes to hang, and fan the air, rolling completely 

 over and dropping, belly up, a wide, open-mouthed 

 horror with gills agape and blazing red, that might 

 well startle a timid angler who had never seen any- 

 thing of the kind before. 



The tarpon struck the water with a mighty crash 

 and made a run for the channel of two hundred feet, 

 to stop which seemed an impossibility. But the fates 

 favored me and by good fortune, when I had gotten 

 out into water up to my waist, I stopped the fish, 

 turned it into the lagoon, and reaching shore raced 

 with the boy along the sands, trying to keep up 

 with it. 



" Look at dat fish fly, mawster. For de Lo'd, see 

 dat sabalo stan' on his haid. See him stan' on de 

 tail." 



267 



